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Democrats Gain as Stevens Loses Race

Mark Begich, left, declared victory Tuesday in his bid to unseat Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, right. Mr. Stevenss party opted to wait for vote totals rather than voting on his expulsion.Credit
Left, All Grillo/Associated Press; Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, convicted last month on federal ethics charges, lost his bid for a seventh term as final ballots were counted on Tuesday, giving Democrats at least 58 seats in the Senate for the first years of the Obama administration.

With an estimated 2,500 votes still outstanding and other election certification steps still to take place, Mark Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage, had taken a lead of 3,724 votes out of more than 315,000 cast, and he declared victory.

“I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate,” Mr. Begich said. “It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day. I can’t wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families.”

Mr. Stevens did not immediately concede the race. He could request a recount, but he would have to pay for it if the current vote margins hold.

Mr. Begich’s victory will end the career of Mr. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator ever and a pivotal figure in the history of his state after it initially appeared that he would triumph despite his criminal conviction just days before the election.

The defeat came on Mr. Stevens’s 85th birthday, at the end of a day in which he avoided expulsion from the ranks of Senate Republicans as his colleagues awaited the final results.

“I wouldn’t wish what I am going through on anyone, my worst enemy,” Mr. Stevens said Tuesday morning in the Capitol. Mr. Stevens’s defeat will strengthen a majority that Democrats sought to bolster Tuesday by allowing Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, to retain his high-profile committee chairmanship.

Instead, Democrats dropped Mr. Lieberman from another panel, delivering a mild rebuke for his strong support of Senator John McCain and other Republicans in this month’s elections.

The decision was part of the postelection Congressional tableaux as senators of both parties re-elected their current leadership teams for the first two years of President-elect Barack Obama’s administration. House Democrats met to make Representative Nancy Pelosi of California their candidate for speaker and essentially kept their leadership intact as well, with Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland remaining majority leader.

Aware of the legislative battles ahead, Senate Democrats said they wanted to adhere to Mr. Obama’s call for reconciliation and leniency for Mr. Lieberman.

But a pragmatic dynamic was at work as well. Having added seven new senators to their side, Democrats want to avoid driving Mr. Lieberman into the Republican fold. Even though they remain short of the 60 needed to cut off filibusters, the Democrats are aiming to keep their majority as large as possible next year when, for the first time since 1994, they have control of Congress and the White House. Two other Senate seats, in Minnesota and Georgia, have yet to be decided.

“We have got some big issues here, and we need all hands on deck,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who had pushed to keep the retribution against his home-state colleague to a minimum.

Democrats voted 42 to 13 to let Mr. Lieberman stay at the helm of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs while removing him from the Environment and Public Works Committee, where he led a subcommittee. The formal resolution before the Democrats, considered in what was described as an emotional meeting in the Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol, also declared that the Democratic caucus “rejects and disapproves of Senator Lieberman’s statements against Senator Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.”

Photo

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, who supported Senator John McCain in the presidential race, was allowed to keep his committee chairmanship as Democrats sought to strengthen their majority.Credit
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Lawmakers who attended the session said that Mr. Lieberman openly discussed the political and personal hurt he had experienced when many of his colleagues campaigned against him after he lost a Democratic Senate primary in 2006 before winning re-election as an independent. After the vote, he expressed some remorse for his campaign comments but noted that the resolution did not chastise him directly for backing Mr. McCain, who returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to resume life as a senator.

Mr. Lieberman, who only eight years ago was the party’s nominee for vice president, said he could have made some statements “more clearly.” He added: “And there are some that I made that I wish I had not made at all. And obviously in the heat of campaigns, that happens to all of us. But I regret that. And now it’s time to move on.”

Some Democrats remained angry that Mr. Lieberman had been so outspoken not only in his support of Mr. McCain, but also in his campaigning for Republicans like Senator Norm Coleman, who continued to hold a narrow lead in his re-election bid in Minnesota. They said that stripping the chairmanship was only fitting.

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Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who aligns with Democrats, said allowing Mr. Lieberman to run the committee was a “slap in the face” to Americans who “worked day and night to get Barack Obama elected and to move our country in a very new direction.”

“Having said that, there is an enormous amount of work that is facing the Senate and we all have to move on and work together to address these issues,” Mr. Sanders said.

The reluctance to move forcefully against their colleagues illustrates again how cautious senators are when it comes to punishing their own. After being thwarted repeatedly by Republican resistance in the past two years, Senate Democrats were unwilling to lose the support of Mr. Lieberman on most domestic policy issues, particularly after Mr. Obama had urged that Mr. Lieberman be allowed to remain in the Democratic fold.

The resolution noted that Mr. Lieberman’s vote gave Democrats the majority in 2007 and that he voted almost 100 percent of the time with the party on important procedural issues.

“I would defy anyone to be more angry than I was,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who will remain majority leader, about Mr. Lieberman’s criticism of Mr. Obama. “But I also believe that if you look at the problems we face as a nation, is this a time we walk out of here saying, ‘Boy, did we get even’? I am very satisfied with what we did today.”

The decision touched off attacks on the Democrats by liberal and progressive groups and on the Internet, where critics accused Democrats of weakness in their posture against Mr. Lieberman, whom they have branded a traitor to Democrats.

But senators pointed to statements by the Obama campaign in support of Mr. Lieberman as justification for their decision. “The Senate Democratic Caucus has decided that if President-elect Barack Obama can forgive, so can we,” said Senator Thomas R. Carper, Democrat of Delaware.

Despite a second round of Republican losses, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was returned as Republican leader.

Senate Republicans also easily disposed of a call by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina to impose term limits on the Republican leader and members of the Appropriations Committee, overwhelmingly rejecting the proposals.

In the House, Democrats gathered for the leadership elections and bid farewell to Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat who is relinquishing his No. 4 post in the party hierarchy to become chief of staff to Mr. Obama.

Those in the closed meeting said Mr. Emanuel became emotional and told his colleagues it was “not an easy decision for me” to give up his House seat.